$692,466 Judgment Against Liquid-Plumr Maker for Young Child's Severe Facial Chemical Burns

On the evening of December 21, 1968, a one-year-old girl was with her mother in a Cleveland boarding house, decorating for Christmas. Her father came home with a bottle of Liquid-plumr, a lye-based drain cleaner made by Jiffee Chemical Corporation, to clear a clogged bathroom sink. He poured half the bottle into the drain and set the uncapped bottle on the back of the sink. The girl, who had followed him to the bathroom, grabbed his leg and screamed. She had been doused with the cleaner.

The product was about 26 percent sodium hydroxide. The family drove to a community hospital that could not manage burns of that extent, and a transfer to University Hospitals added another twenty-five minutes. By the time of trial she had been hospitalized eight times, had undergone eleven operations and had a 190-page hospital record. Her plastic surgeon testified that she was left with extensive, permanent facial scarring. Much of her face had been reconstructed, her left ear was rebuilt from rib cartilage, and her eyelids were so taut that she slept with her eyes open. Her mental and physical functions were otherwise normal.

Edward M. Swartz of Swartz & Swartz in Boston tried the case with Cleveland lawyer David A. Katz, and William Schwartz of the same firm joined them on the appeal. Jiffee's main defense, raised for the first time midway through the bench trial after years of discovery, was that the burns came from a different product, a sulfuric acid cleaner called Mister Plumber. The container was never recovered, but the girl's mother, her father and the landlady all identified the product as Liquid-plumr, and the plaintiffs' medical experts tied the injuries to sodium hydroxide. The federal judge found for the plaintiffs on negligence, breach of express and implied warranty, and strict liability.

The district court's first award was $1.6 million to the child (lost earning capacity, future medical care, and pain and suffering) and $112,466 to her mother. On rehearing the judge left the child's figure alone and cut the mother's to $20,000. The final judgment in 1976 totaled $1,620,000.

The Sixth Circuit decided the appeal on December 19, 1978. It affirmed liability on a single ground: Jiffee had advertised Liquid-plumr as 'safe,' its own experts conceded it was not, and the landlady who bought it and the girl's father had both seen that advertising. The panel declined to rule on the other theories. It also found the damages excessive and entered its own figures. The child kept the full $500,000 for pain and suffering, which the court called substantial in view of how extensive the disfigurement was, and received $150,000 for diminished earning capacity and $15,000 for future care. Her mother received $27,466: $12,466 in medical expenses and $15,000 for care during the girl's minority. Together that came to $692,466, with interest from the 1976 judgment.